Act III:
“Crossing Paths”
Chapter Seventeen:
"Strike Down Upon Thee"
“Rarity, wait up!” Sweetie Belle called out, scampering as fast as her hooves could carry her. Rarity’s pace was surprisingly fast, and they covered the distance from the living room to the laboratory with a speed that was almost baffling, especially since less than two minutes ago, Rarity had been almost welded to the couch in apparent apathy.
“No, I can’t wait up,” Rarity muttered in response, pushing her hoof up against the print scanner for a moment, the locks on the door unlocking with a sharp clack. “To ‘wait up’ would mean that those… monsters will continue to harm and exploit those who are helpless, and I can’t allow that.”
“But Rarity!” Sweetie followed as fast she could as Rarity descended down the staircase into the laboratory. “I mean, don’t you think you’re rushing? I mean, we’ve only flown the suit once--”
Rarity stopped suddenly, her head whipping back to look at Sweetie. Her expression was incredibly serious, her eyes terse and Sweetie could have sworn that there were tears starting to bubble up.
“The one time I hesitated when somepony innocent was in danger, Sweetie, he ended up dying. I made a promise, Sweetie. I promised to help those who are helpless. That’s why we built the suit. That’s why I feel I’m still alive. I should have died back in that cave, not Kili. He was innocent. I was the one who was irresponsible. It was my company that built the weapons that killed his family. The very least I could do is repay him. And--” she paused, her eyes flicking towards the suit, which was assembled on a mannequin. “--And this is the best way I know how. I can’t let this moment pass, Sweetie. Not now… not when I have the chance to make a difference.” By this point, the tears had overflowed from her eyes despite her obvious best efforts to the contrary, and trickled down her cheeks. “Understand?”
Sweetie was silent for a second, her eyes slightly widened. This was the most emotional she’d ever seen Rarity in her life. Her eyes drifted to the suit, and then back to Rarity. The expression on her older sister’s face was one of intense pleading for validation, like someone begging for approval of some kind. Sweetie swallowed drily.
“Wh-what do you need me to do?” she said, surprised that her own voice sounded so serious. Rarity’s expression loosened slightly, a small smile tugging at her lips.
“Go set up TOM, I’ll suit up,” she answered, trotting down the stairs briskly as Sweetie followed behind turning to go sit in front of the desktop that functioned as TOM’s central processing unit. The sound of Rarity’s suit assembling in the background mixed with the sound of TOM coming online, in a vaguely over-dramatic series of whirring fans, beeping electronics, and the low hum of the hard drive discs spinning. TOM’s screen flicked on, the glowing diamond pulsing elegantly.
“Good evening,” TOM’s voice chimed. “How may I be of service today?”
“TOM, I need the location of a village in Ishval mentioned in today’s news report if possible,” Rarity replied determinedly, her body already encased in the suit, minus the helmet, which was floating in her magic.
“Very well, Rarity,” he replied, his diamond glowing briefly before a chime went off. “The village’s name is Shambala. Do you wish to have the coordinates uploaded to the navigation codex?”
“Yes.” Rarity placed the helmet onto her head, clicking it shut with a metallic whur. “Ready, Sweetie?”
Sweetie gave another swallow, grabbing the headset and flicking a small switch attached to the monitor. In the bottom right corner a small window opened, revealing Rarity’s face inside the helmet. “Yeah… ready.” Sweetie said, and she saw Rarity smile.
“Good, good. Put the headset on, it should be to your right.” Rarity said, motioning towards the discreet looking headset that sat next to the computer. Sweetie reached over, slipping it over her ears.
“Now you should be able to hear me better and visa versa,” Rarity’s voice said, now no longer sounding muffled by the helmet, but rather crisp and clear. “You’re job is to keep an eye on TOM, and help him out. Understand. You’re my co-pilot.”
Sweetie gives Rarity a slight nod, still taken aback by the rapid pace of everything. One minute she was bored on the couch, the next in her sister’s laboratory about to co-pilot a mission to a foreign country to stop terrorists. It was… confusing to say the least. “Co-pilot…” she murmured, looking back at her reflected image in the computer screen. “... right.”
Rarity stepped into the center of the room, looking up at the large hole in the ceiling. Sweetie glanced at the small window showing her face, and Rarity’s expression was determined, apparent worry only vaguely betrayed by the constant nibbling on her lower lip.
“Well…” Rarity began, taking a deep breath and setting her jaw. “Here I go.”
With those words, the rockets of the suit roared to life, and she rose up from the ground, shooting skyward through the hole in the ceiling, leaving a coughing Sweetie in her wake.
Sweetie got up from her chair, running over to underneath the whole and peering skyward. By now, Rarity’s suit was only a small reddish orange light in the night sky, leaving behind a streak of rapidly dissipating exhaust in it’s wake.
“Good luck.” Sweetie said under her breath, before going back to the computer. Rarity was depending on her, and that meant she had to pay attention.
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“You know, Roman, I was thinking that after we’re done here, we can do some rugby. What do you think?” the lanky griffin asked the burly diamond who was striding alongside him through the village, seemingly oblivious to the sounds of mayhem and chaos around them. The diamond gave a shrug, motioning towards a random home.
“I’m kind of busy right now, Xavier, in case you didn’t notice.” With that, he started to kick down the door, slinging his assault rifle into position as his final kick caused the door to swing open violently. The sounds of terrified civilians greeted their ears, but were quickly silenced with a torrent of equally loud gunfire from the duo’s rifles.
“Crap…” Roman muttered, flicking his foreleg in vague disgust. “I got blood on me.” Roman merely rolled his eyes as he turned back out of the house.
“I don’t know why you’re so hung up about that, Roman, it’s just blood. No big deal.”
“Yeah, but I just preened this morning.” Xavier complained, following Roman out of the house, leaving behind the pile of bodies as if it where litter.
“Seriously? You’re a badass mercenary, and you’re worried about your feathers?” Roman laughed. “Let me guess, you’re a drag queen on the side? You got a dress stashed away in that pack?”
Xavier glared. “No. I simply appreciate what Gia gave me, is all. Not like you, you mangy mutt.”
Roman glared in return, opening his mouth to hurl back an insult when a deafening boom shattered through the village air. Both Xavier and Roman froze in place, their heads peering skywards, Roman's ears flicking about.
“What on earth?” He said aloud, giving Xavier a confused look. The griffon barely had time to act before a purple and silver streak slammed into the center of the street, dust raining down on anyone nearby. As the thing pulled itself upright, Roman saw that it was a pony, or at least resembled one. A metal pony, its eyes no more than glowing slits peering through the dust and what looked like a giant rock in it’s chest, which glowed brightly.
The monster turned towards them, eyes glowing menacingly. There was a strange silence between them before Xavier and Roman’s commander, a large griffin by the name of Herzlos, barked out an order, sending the entire group into a tizzy of gunfire. The bullets didn’t have much an effect however, mostly managing to simply scuff off the paint and send the occasional spark flying. An unearthly glow emitted from the strange glowing rock in the armored pony’s chest. Its horn glowed, and what looked like a bubble of teal light surrounded the creature.
The bullets simply bounced off the magical bubble, seemingly to no effect. The creature lifted one of its hooves, and a glow emanated from the end of it. An burst of energy burst from it, blowing several terrorists away. The remaining terrorists turned towards their commander, only to be greeted by the sight of him flying away, wings pumping to carry him as far away from the armored pony as possible.
“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!” came the panicked scream of one of Xavier and Roman’s comrades, apparently voicing the thought that was on everyone’s minds. The group scattered, all screaming and shouting in panic.
Fire exploded from the monster’s legs as it lifted off the ground. It hovered in the air a moment before unleashing a barrage of small rockets and energy blasts from its forelegs, which went whizzing all over, obliterating the vehicles the terrorists had brought with them. Now surrounded by a near apocalyptic swirl of fire and smoke the creature landed once more.
At this point, Xavier and Roman had ducked into a house, peering over the windowsill to the outside.
“We’re all gonna die, we’re all gonna die, we’re all gonna die…” Xavier repeated over and over, his pupils tiny specks.
“Shut up or it’ll hear us!” Roman hissed, slapping Xavier on the back of the head, causing the griffin to let out a murmur of fear. The pair stared outside, watching as the armored pony turned to stalk towards the row of village some of their fellow terrorists had taken hostage at gunpoint. One of the terrorists barked at the armored pony, waving his gun in exclamation. He spoke a language that neither Xavier or Roman understood, but that apparently gave the armored pony pause, as it halted mid step, standing still as it seemingly pondered what to do next.
“Sorry,” a strangely feminine voice answered. “But I take no prisoners.” A little object extended from its shoulders and fired several small bullet-like objects at the raiders, killing them with a precise shot to the head.
At this point, Xavier straight up keeled over, having gone deathly pale and letting out a pathetic chirp. Roman swore under his breath as he ducked behind the window sill, just as the armored pony turned towards the building they were hiding it.
In a flurry of panic, Roman tried to reload his assault rifle, only to have it suddenly enveloped in a halo of magic, which chucked it away. Shaking in fear, Roman slowly turned his head to see, looming over him and horn glowing bright teal, the armored pony.
Roman stammered, only to suddenly feel his leg dragged out from underneath him as the pony proceeded to drag both him and the unconscious Xavier out into the open. This was also the exact moment at which Xavier finally awoke, only to let out a scream of terror as he scrambled wildly to escape the pony’s magic.
“PLEASE NO, PLEASE NO, PLEASE NO, WE WERE JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS!!!!” Xavier squealed, which seemingly only made their armored tormentor angrier, as an additional halo of magic wrapped around his beak, clamping it shut. With a rough slam, Roman and Xavier found themselves plopped directly in front of a group of villagers, all of whom had varying degrees of anger and rage on their faces.
“I believe I shall leave these two for you to deal with,” the armored pony said, tipping it’s head slightly before lifting off into the air and flying off, leaving Xavier and Roman behind.
“Now-now…” Roman began, waving his paws in fear as one of the villagers, a burly griffin, leaded down to pick up a fallen assault rifle. “I-I’m s-sure we can re-reach some sort--”
*POP* *POP*
And with that, both Xavier and Roman’s bodies collapsed to the ground, the light leaving their eyes as the blood oozed out of the bullet wounds.
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Rarity turned towards home, feeling more alive than she ever had before. She’d done it. She’d finally avenged Kili’s death. It felt as if some hole in her soul was being filled. She felt no guilt over her actions. Those monsters deserved their fates. Instead, she felt fulfilled. The image of the somewhat confused yet grateful villagers ran through her mind over and over again. Those faces. All strange to her. The gratefulness in their faces had been genuine, if apprehensive. The image filled her with meaning.
This must be how a firefighter feels… she thought briefly. This… fulfillment. a smile spread across her face.
It feels great.
//////////////////////////
Light Bright let out a seething hiss as the spark from the crystal left a scorch mark on his hoof.
“Stupid rock…” he grumbled, his hoof feeling around for the heavy, heat resistant gloves that sat on the desk next to him. His sleep deprived eyes glared down at the rock as he sloppily grabbed the gloves and slipped them on. He looked over at this computer screen, leaning in close and muttering schematic information under his breath. He grabbed a screwdriver, aggressively stabbing at the Philips head screw in order to fasten the crystal into place.
Okay… good… he thought, smiling slightly. Now just to attach the cabling and strap it to my horn and then I’ll have exactly what Fancy Pants wanted. His eyebrows lowered at the memory of Fancy Pants. Stupid stuck up knob-headed snob.
With a flair of his horn, he attached the cabling that ran to the ring around his horn. There was an electric tingle that ran down his spine, and almost instantly he felt his magic enhanced. A brilliant smile exploded onto his face, and he clapped his hooves together.
“EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE YESSSSSSSS!!!!!” he practically cackled, slipping on the heavy vest onto his chest and securing it into place. He spun on his hooves, ready to finally get out of this dark, stuffy laboratory, and finally have his genius recognized.
What happened next was inexplicable. It felt as if his horn had melted, the electric feeling overwhelmed his senses as the entire fabric of everything around him suddenly shifted and warped in around himself, and everything went white.